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A card from a 10-year-old girl left outside the hospital in Offenbach on Sunday reads: "Dear Tugce, I admire your courage. You are a hero. Rest in peace."

A petition calling for Ms Albayrak to be awarded the national order for merit posthumously has gathered over 100,000 signatures.

Confirming he would consider the award, President Mr Gauck wrote to her family to say: "Like countless citizens, I am shocked and appalled by this terrible act. Tugce has earned gratitude and respect from us all.

"She will always remain a role model to us, our entire country mourns with you.

"Where other people looked the other way, Tugce showed exemplary courage and moral fortitude."

Before Sunday's "civil courage" vigil on Oranienplatz in Berlin, tributes were paid in Offenbach, with people holding signs which read "Thank you, Tugce".

Oranienplatz is in the heart of Berlin's Kreuzberg district, which has a large Turkish community. Ms Albayrak, who was from the town of Gelnhausen, also near Frankfurt, was Turkish by origin.